Streamlining the licensing of nuclear power plants without compromising the core: EU environmental reviews

To decarbonise economies, a rapid deployment of clean energy is essential. Many climate change mitigation scenarios predict that nuclear power must double or even triple by 2050. Yet this ambition clashes with the industry’s history of significant project delays, sometimes attributed to environmental impact assessments (EIAs). Proposed reforms have been pushing to simplify these environmental reviews, raising concerns over deregulation and wider environmental harm. This article analyses whether and how EIAs can delay nuclear power plant (NPP) projects in the European Union (EU). It then demonstrates that, by integrating climate, energy and environmental policies, it is possible and desirable to correct EIAs’ procedural inefficiencies, while maintaining an equivalent level of environmental rigour. Through a comparative analysis of regulatory regimes in the EU, France and the United States, this article identifies best practices and presents seven recommendations to accelerate nuclear licensing without compromising the integrity of environmental reviews.